Top speaker Sivaneswaran (centre) with (from left) Sutarno, Dr Sabariah, Dinesh (second place), Chan (third place), Tsen and Lau.
MIRI: Sivaneswaran Thangavelu of Miri Toastmasters Club (MTC) emerged overall champion in the 2015 District 87 Toastmasters International Speech Contest, making the Miri club proud.
The 40-year-old winner, who spoke on ‘The Purpose in Life’, is a corporate trainer and entrepreneur, and is a member of the Miri-based Toastmaster Club.
He qualified to represent Miri and the state to enter the Toastmasters International Speech Contest semifinals at the International Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, in August.
The best eight speakers from the Toastmasters Clubs in District 87, which means clubs based in Sarawak, Sabah, Brunei and Indonesia, competed in the event held in Kuching in conjunction with the Toastmasters District 87 Annual Conference.
Dinesh Vaswani from the Innovators Toastmasters Club in Jakarta, Indonesia talked on ‘Inside your clothes’, earning him second place, while Dunstan Chan from the Hornbill City Toastmasters Club in Kuching finished third with his speech on ‘A little bit of heart’.
Another member of Miri Toastmasters, Dr Loh Yunn Hua, represented Miri and Bintulu divisions in the ‘Table Topics Contest’ won by Nitesh Gianchandani of Jakarta Toastmasters Club.
The recent Toastmasters District 87 Annual Conference was well attended by about 500 delegates from East Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.
Among those present were the District 87 Governor Sutarno Kho, Director of State Human Resources Unit, Chief Minister’s Office – Dr Sabariah Putit, Lieutenant Governor Education and Training – Richard Tsen and Lieutenant Governor Marketing – Ivy Lau.
“Toastmasters International has been operating clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking and leadership skills since 1928.
“To date, the membership records 313,000 from 14,650 clubs in 126 countries globally,” the organising spokesperson disclosed to The Borneo Post here recently.
To a question, the spokesperson was happy that Miri won the public speaking competition this time.
It was a meritorious achievement for the winner and a pride for the club in particular and the city as a whole.